


It Means Open

by caesiumlight



Series: Forces at Work [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 21:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8639284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caesiumlight/pseuds/caesiumlight
Summary: When Yixing sees the injured dog limping outside his apartment, he doesn’t hesitate to bring it in.





	

When Yixing sees the injured dog limping outside his apartment, he doesn’t hesitate to bring it in. The dog shies away from his touch at first, but after a few gentle spoken words, comes to press its damp nose against his hand. 

“Let’s get you patched up, okay?” 

The dog whines piteously in response. 

 

\--

 

After that, Yixing sees the dog loitering outside his apartment regularly. Maybe it just likes Yixing, who coddles it with treats and affectionate pats, but the way it skulks around is just that—loitering. Yixing doesn’t know how else to describe it. It’s strange. Very un-dog like. 

 

\--

 

Yixing starts to notice three things. 

One, the dog always leaves before Yixing wakes up. Smart dog, that. And a big one too. Yixing figures that standing on its hind legs, the door handle is easily reachable. 

Two, the dog gets injured a lot. Yixing worries about the fights its picking. Obviously with bigger, stronger dogs than itself. Bloodied tail, scratches in its flank – one time, Yixing had to rush it to the vet with a laceration dangerously close to the eye. 

He admonishes the dog, over and over, telling it to stop getting chewed up like that. The dog simply rests its head on Yixing’s knee, and goes to sleep. 

Yixing comes the closest to anger he has in a while when the dog shows up with new battle scars yet again. 

“Get out,” he says to the poor thing. “Stop coming back like that.”

The dog leaves, tail between its legs. Yixing starts feeling bad not two minutes later, and flies out of his apartment to search for the dog. He spends the better part of the night wandering the neighbourhood, but there’s no sign of it. He goes to sleep with the guilt almost choking him. 

The next day however, the dog returns. Its left front paw is still mangled, but Yixing can tell it’s making a valiant effort not to hobble.

That’s the third thing. It keeps coming back.

 

\--

 

After that, Yixing stops questioning the dog’s actions. Just scoops it up in his arms when its too weak to walk, bathes it carefully, and cleans its wounds. 

“You know,” he says one night, “it hurts me to see you like that.”

The dog looks at him mournfully as if it understands. Yixing scratches it behind its ear.

“You need a name.”

He hums as he dries the dog with a towel, thinking. 

“Kai,” he decides. “I’ll call you Kai. You know what that means, in mandarin?”

The dog considers him.

“It means open.” Yixing smiles as he massages Kai’s back. “Maybe one day you’ll be open with me. Tell me why you insist on getting yourself into all these fights.”

 

\--

 

Kai still leaves in the morning. But he always appears for supper. Sometimes with new wounds, sometimes—and those times relief courses through Yixing—dancing on his feet, hale and happy. Yixing feeds him chicken strips out of his hand, and Kai presses close to him on the couch. 

Kai becomes a familiar presence. A companion. Yixing decides he quite likes it.

He buys a chew toy for Kai. A gift, of sorts. To show Kai he's welcome here. Yixing doesn’t know why, but he has a feeling Kai’d understand. 

 

\--

 

But on a Monday, Kai doesn’t come. Yixing waits for him until the food turns cold. Dinner time seems so much quieter.

Kai doesn’t come on Tuesday, either. Or Wednesday. 

On Thursday, Yixing is forced to consider that maybe Kai had just decided to move on to wherever next he wanted to go. It saddens him. The feeling of abandonment stings just as badly as if it were a person doing it. 

But Kai always came back. 

Didn’t he? 

Had he gotten into a fight so bad he couldn’t walk away from it?

Panic cold in his breath, Yixing drops his fork, grabs his jacket, and leaves the house. 

“Kai!” he yells the moment he’s outside, clueless as to where to begin looking. 

Yixing doesn’t find Kai. What he does find, however, is a young man, bruised and shivering, huddled in the same corner he first set eyes on an injured dog. Yixing steps closer.

“I’m sorry,” the man whispers, “I know you don’t like seeing me like that.” 

Yixing looks into the man’s helpless eyes and knows for certain who he’s talking to. “I’d rather see you like that than not see you at all.”

“You won’t send me away?”

“I won’t.”

The man shudders a little, breath hitching. And then, “Jongin.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Jongin.”

“Of course.”

“Though I liked Kai. I liked what it meant.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“I’ll tell you, one day. I promise.”

Yixing murmurs an assent, curling an arm around Jongin’s waist and lifting him off the ground. Jongin groans softly, but struggles to keep himself on his feet. Yixing thinks back to the dog trying so desperately to hide his pain, and his heart aches. 

“I’d like that,” he says. 

Jongin leans into him, burying his nose into Yixing’s neck. Yixing brings him inside.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Repost from my [LJ](http://caesiumlight.livejournal.com/2837.html).


End file.
